Agriculture is being managed more tightly than ever before and is generating more data than ever before, but the potential of a data economy in agriculture remains unexplored. The reasons for this are varied, and include technical interoperability, business relationships between stakeholders, and social acceptability issues around data ownership and market transparency. Individual stakeholders make use of the data they generate at their own particular stage in the agri-food supply chain. However, the sharing of this data with others along the chain and its collective analysis needs more development and demonstration if more efficiencies are to be introduced and further value added to the agri-data economy. While some sharing is taking place on an ad-hoc basis, each new set of potential data sharers must start from scratch and work through the same issues common to all such arrangements. Equally, the lack of data sharing precedents in agriculture inhibits data owners from taking a more exploratory view of the world. Several dimensions must be considered in policy-making if a fully functioning data economy in the agriculture domain is to emerge. Such a multi-disciplinary approach is at the core of the DIVINE consortium, which encompasses technical (agriculture and ICT), markets, and social sciences expertise. It will build an agri-data ecosystem that incorporates existing common agri data spaces while deploying industry-led pilots built on data sharing arrangements, to demonstrate the cost-benefit and added value in sharing agri data. DIVINE will assess its ecosystem at the level of policy impacts, the uptake of digital technologies, and economic and environmental performance. DIVINE will promote its ecosystem and its assessments to technology providers, policy-makers, farm representatives, and various other agri-data stakeholders. It will take the first real concrete steps towards mature data markets in European and global agriculture.

PAPILLONS will elucidate ecological and socioeconomic sustainability of agricultural plastics (APs) in relation to releases and impacts of micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) in European soils. We will advance knowledge on sources, behaviour and impacts through cross-disciplinary research, bringing together scientists from chemistry, materials engineering, agronomy, soil ecology, toxicology and social sciences. We will transform the scientific knowledge generated into guidance on specific solutions by applying a Multi-actor approach, involving actors in the agricultural and policy sector and world-leading industries. This will enable co-creation of knowledge and provide the scientific background to enable policy, agricultural and industrial innovation towards sustainable farm production systems. We will deliver the first digital European atlas of AP use, management and waste production to estimate sources of MNP to agricultural soils. We will run integrative studies at laboratory, mesocosm and field scales in different parts of Europe to address: occurrence of AP-derived MNPs; MNP behaviour and transport in soil; uptake by biota and crops; long-term impacts on soil properties, fertility and ecological services; effects on biological and functional diversity across multiple scales; effects on plant production and quality; and socioeconomic impacts of AP-based practices. We will focus on multigenerational effect studies for relevant traditional and biodegradable polymers, at realistic and future high-exposure scenarios. PAPILLONS partners pioneered soil MNP research, host the majority of European analytical capacity for assessing soil contamination and will provide validated, high-throughput analysis for MNPs in soil. Using innovative applications of state-of-the-art analytical chemistry, we will advance analysis down to the nanoscale range and develop novel radiolabelled nanoplastics for accurately tracking behaviour and transport in soil and uptake by biota and crops.

As conventional cropping systems face deterioration of soil quality, loss of biodiversity, and declining ecosystem services, there is an urgent need to change practices to more sustainable yet productive systems. Intercropping enhances biodiversity, maximizes land productivity, and optimizes biogeochemical cycles in agroecosystems, but is lacking acceptance from European farmers. Legume-based intercropping takes advantage of biological diversity and synergistic effects between companion plants while reducing external inputs. A major objective of LEGUMINOSE is to identify the obstacles to intercropping and enhance farmers’ acceptance by providing knowledge and demonstrations that promote economic, environmental, and social benefits of legume-cereal intercropping. LEGUMINOSE will assess intercropping potential by focusing on pesticide reduction, plant-microbe mediated element cycling, soil health improvement, and crop quality and health. To overcome barriers to intercropping implementation, we will establish a network of six field trials and farm labs (20 farms in each country; 180 on-farm trials) in different pedo-climatic zones across Europe (IT, DE, DR, ES, PL, CZ, UK), Egypt, and Pakistan. Furthermore, we will integrate remote sensing and crop modelling to survey fields, upscale the field-scale results, and create a web-based decision support system on intercropping. In collaboration with various stakeholders, legume-intercropping systems' economical, ecological, and social gains will be assessed and disseminated with international outreach from farm-level to policymakers. We will recognize and involve the whole value chain to explore and test innovative marketing strategies for the products of intercropping. LEGUMINOSE will contribute to the ecological intensification of European agriculture by providing science-based, farmer-led, and economically viable transformations for legume-based intercropping systems.

Unsustainable agricultural practices are major drivers affecting habitat and species diversity in agricultural landscapes of the EU. However, peatland, grassland, and species associated with agriculture are of most concern. The ongoing negative impacts of unsustainable agricultural practices emphasize the need for a fully integrated approach between the EU 2030 Biodiversity and Farm to Fork Strategies. Supporting the EC`s ambition of enhancing biodiversity of agricultural landscapes advanced systems are required to monitor biodiversity features and their changes over time and in space. Such biodiversity monitoring systems will support implementation of result-based policies in the European agricultural landscapes. The BioMonitor4CAP project will design advanced biodiversity monitoring systems mainly assessing diversity of targeted species and habitats to be tested, calibrated, and demonstrated in five European regions representing the major agro-ecological regions of the EU and one region in Peru representing one of the global biodiversity hot spots. The project will combine classical indicator systems that are part of the European monitoring framework (e.g. Farmland Bird Index) with various indicator systems mostly recently developed and applied in form of standalone systems: i) new indicator species (e.g. grasshopper), ii) genetic diversity (eDNA), iii) on-site sensors (e.g. wing beat frequency, acoustic sounds), iv) functional diversity (e.g. pollinators), and iv) various spatial measures. Supporting development and implementation of revised agricultural policies and ensuring rural development the project will involve among multiple stakeholder groups particularly farmers, conservationists, and service provides as the value and/or marketability of public and/or private goods delivered through maintained and enhanced biodiversity and related monitoring systems are hardly understood.

Clear targets have been defined by the EU for a more competitive and sustainable agriculture (Green Deal). This requires data-driven decision making for farmers, governments and other policy makers, yet there is a severe reference-data gap when observations are needed at the local level. An underexploited source of data is generated by sensors used in agriculture, as they capture crucial information on the crops and the surrounding agri-environmental conditions. Tapping into this source and upscaling them the integration with other data (e.g. satellite) could result in enhanced capacities for regional agri-environmental monitoring. This would require a paradigm shift on how the monitoring systems work, and on the issues of data ownership and governance. The vision of ScaleAgData is thus to gain insight in (i) how these data streams should be governed to the benefit of all stakeholders, especially the farmers, and (ii) how these data can be integrated in the regional agri-environmental monitoring datasets. Through this upscaling, this wealth of information can be shared with a larger farmer community, thus shrinking the technological inequality in the sector. Specific attention will be paid to innovations in sensor technology, edge computing, data analytics, and novel EO-based products. These innovations will be co-designed and showcased in 6 Research and Innovation Labs, each with their specific thematic focus and spread across Europe. This will enable the assessment of the proposed innovations and data governance frameworks, and demonstrating added values of the improved monitoring capabilities for a range of users, including small-scale and agro-ecological farmers, the financial sector, and policy makers. With these outcomes, ScaleAgData aims at contributing to the overall competitiveness and sustainability performance of the European agricultural sector, and to the work of the HE candidate partnership “Agriculture of Data” and the Soil Mission.